


Bourbon & Business

by annerly



Category: Food Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-04-12 00:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19120621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annerly/pseuds/annerly
Summary: Small businesses against large corporations.Quickly inflating prices in a declining economy was more than enough to cripple and bankrupt smaller shops not strong enough to tough out the storm.Starrydollars... Scallion Express… large corporations backed by food souls well-versed in business…A tale of a small cafe surviving in a cut-throat capitalist world run by money and greed.(i.e. :  Whiskey squares off against Coffee and Buddha’s Temptation in a business feud by trying to run a business.  And it goes very poorly.  Because it’s Whiskey.  Y’all should know by now.)





	1. Introduction

“Master Attendant, our stash of emergency money is gone-!” Plum Juice burst into the kitchen alarmed at the devastating situation at hand.  
He had hoped to alert his attendant and bring about a search group to find out where their missing stash of funds had went. However, he should have known that with the news of rate up running amok that his attendant would be unable to resist in trying to partake. The empty bag of ember which could have been sold in this economy with its high demand was empty; the bag of crystals was similarly depleted.  
When he saw the new addition of the house, he nearly fainted.  
“A-ahaha-” Plum Juice was still stone-faced from shock when he heard his attendant’s whimsical apology. “Sorry, Plummy~! I got you your fifth star though~~~!”  
Despite quite literally ascending, he felt as though he had descended into hell.  
“Hello. Pleasure to meet you.” The new food soul before him stuck out his hand for a introductory handshake to which Plum Juice hesitantly engaged in.  
“L-likewise…” Plum Juice looked at the smiling, spectacled food soul before averting his eyes feeling rather uncomfortable.  
“My name is Whiskey. I look forward to working alongside both you and our Master Attendant.”  
“A-ah. L-likewise… I am Plum Juice. I hope to make progress with you…”  
Had he not been so distracted with the prospect of one of the most infamous food souls becoming a member of the house, he would have noticed that Whiskey was already ascended to three stars first thing.  
“Master Attendant, we are on the verge of BANKRUPTCY!” Plum Juice had intended to keep his outbursts until Whiskey was out of sight. He was unfortunately unable to contain it any longer. “HOW COULD YOU HAVE USED UP ALL OF OUR MONEY WHEN OUR RENT IS DUE IN TWO DAYS?!”  
“Bankruptcy?” Whiskey pondered. His head was tilted to the side almost innocently. Though Plum Juice heard of him enough to know that the act was all but an act to play dumb. “That’s no good, Master Attendant.”  
“Ehehe~. What can I say?”  
Plum Juice already saw the death flag of the business go up when he saw that smile grow the tiniest bit wider on Whiskey’s face. Everything was doomed.  
“Hehe~. Perhaps, I can be of help, Master Attendant?”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whiskey vs the Landlord ft. Plum Juice

“Whiskey!”

Plum Juice rushed up to the food soul that was already on his way towards some unknown destination-- with some unknown motive.  

“Yes?”  Whiskey barely threw a glance back towards him, the same unchanging was smile still on his face as he kept on walking forward.

“W-Where are you going?”  The man had a very quick walking pace and held no intent to slow down.

“To help our Master Attendant, of course,” Whiskey replied matter-of-factly.  “I’m going to inquire about the situation and perhaps take action to make amends.”

“I shall come with you!”

Whiskey’s pace slowed down a bit as he took a longer glance at Plum Juice.  A longer gaze was something that didn’t truly describe how that stare was-- piercing, inquisitive, and cold.  The smile that the food soul showed alongside it did not detract from the intensity of the stare and the discomfort it elicited.  

“I would appreciate that.  Thank you.” Whiskey smiled and tilted his head in a polite gesture before turning back around to face forward.

It was known that there existed a dissenting opinion, but the food soul neither showed physical nor verbal indication of it.  The ability to mask his own emotions and intent to disguise and deceive was horribly frightening. Plum Juice felt chilling shivers run down his spine as the two of them headed off to the debtor’s office.

 

“I have come to inquire about my Master Attendant’s dues.  Tomorrow is the deadline, I believe?”

Plum Juice had to commend Whiskey for being so unwavering in his inquiry.

The landlord for the shop that their attendant ran was a debt collector on the side.  Debt collector was the more polite terminology.

Both he and Whiskey were in a run-down office with clouds of smoke and the rancid odor of blood, alcohol, and vomit emitting from the stained walls, floors and furniture.  They were in the presence of ten guards and the landlord-- none of them showing any bit of hospitality for the amount of hostility that they gave.

“Yes, the deadline’s tomorrow.  You owe about twenty grand worth.”  The landlord, kicked back with his legs sloppily on the desk in front of him, clicked his lighter several times to light the end of his cigar before puffing out breaths of cancerous fumes.

“T-twenty grand?!  Our rent was only fifteen as of last month!”  Plum Juice could not contain his outburst. Fifteen grand was already a price much too high in comparison to the land value of the store that they were renting out.

“Interest.”  The answer was thrown out sloppily without qualm.

“How could you charge us interest when we never missed a payment?!  We paid everything on time!” Plum Juice was going increasingly upset.  His attendant had to put up with these increasingly ridiculous rent and demands.  He could contain it no longer. “You can’t charge us this much!”

The landlord looked up and his guards immediately stood up in preparation for a confrontation.

“Please, calm down, Plum Juice.”  Whiskey extended an arm in front of Plum Juice and gave him a soft smile.  “Let’s not jump so far ahead. I was simply asking him of the dues and deadlines.”

“Heh, at least your partner’s a bit smarter.”

Plum Juice was about to retort when Whiskey cut him off.

“May I ask where this interest came from, my good landlord?”

“Haha!”  The landlord chuckled in delight at Whiskey’s words.  “Take a good look at this one and learn from him.” He shook his cigar approvingly at Whiskey who gave a nod in thanks.  “Interest just piles up. I’ve got expenses. Having a full staff employed under me isn’t free, you know.”

“And so for your expenses, you’ve added on ‘interest’ to our attendant’s rent?”

“Haha!  You’re a clever one.”

“Good landlord, does someone as talented as you need such a full staff?  Surely if you have a tenant that pays their dues consistently, you wouldn’t require the staff to coerce them into doing so.”

The landlord laughed again as he puffed out another cloud of smoke.  “Right you are!”

“Well then-”  Whiskey’s smile was more of a grin now.

 

Plum Juice should have known better that nothing involving Whiskey would end well.  He was just misled upon seeing Whiskey interact so civilly with the vermin that was the landlord.  The thought that things would resort to violence on Whiskey’s initiation was something that he stopped considering.

And it very quickly became something that he should have considered when a great shadow enveloped the room and twenty kidneys, ten hearts, and ten livers were flung onto the landlord’s desk and ten corpses hit the ground with sickening thuds.

“Seeing as how you no longer have a full staff to manage, that should cut out the interest in the payment.  And considering that a single heart costs about a million, a liver worth half a million, and kidneys being worth two hundred thousand each, you’ve landed yourself about nineteen million dollars worth of organs right there.”  Whiskey walked up to the desk, picking up a heart and promptly letting it drop from his hand to the floor. “Shall we say that my attendant has no more rent to pay? Perhaps that money can accommodate your staff expenditures as well~.”

The landlord, pale and clammy, had lost the ability to scream.

Plum Juice saw the traces of golden wisps surround Whiskey’s hand as runes started to appear on the ground at his feet.

“W-wait, Whiskey!  Don’t kill him!”

Plum Juice grabbed ahold of Whiskey’s hand before the food soul managed to cast any further spells.

“Hmm…  You’re quite right.  If I kill him now, the deed still belongs in his name and our attendant would then lose the right to operate the store in that location.”  Whiskey’s grin quirked up a bit further. “And I do always have a need for an experimental subject…”

The fact that Plum Juice for the first time in his existence was a part of the act of kidnapping someone, stuffing them into Whiskey’s closet and gathering organs to sell on the black market was something that no one could know about.

How he was standing in Whiskey’s room having kidnapped the landlord, assisting in manslaughter and black-market dealings was beyond him.

“You know, I originally had doubts about you, Plum Juice.”  Whiskey broke the silence as the two of them stared at his closet-- the contents securely hidden away.  Whiskey-- smiling as per usual-- gave Plum Juice a gently pat on the shoulder as he looked at him approvingly.  “But I’m glad that you and I serve the same attendant. I look forward to likewise making progress with you.”

How ironic of him to reiterate the same words that Plum Juice had given to him when they first met.

Yet it was a good thing that Whiskey had come to aid him in the business of their attendant’s store.  Larger obstacles lay ahead for the both of them, and they would be continually working alongside one another in order to progress forward in the business world.

It was simply unknown to them at the time.


End file.
